The Rhetoric of Science

Henry Fielding (1933) examines Fielding's prodigious activity as dramatist, journalist, novelist and magistrate. Though Fielding lived mainly by his pen, the profession he had chosen for himself, and the one in which he ardently desired to succeed, was that of the law, and this book takes the man as a whole in looking at his writings and his success at law.

1. Fielding's Early Life and Education 2. Legal Allusions in the Plays 3. Fielding and the Licensing Act, 1737 4. Fielding as a Law Student 5. Fielding at the Bar - Legal Characters and Legal Questions in his Novels 6. Fielding as a Magistrate 7. His 'Charge to the Grand Jury' 8. The Riots of 1749 - Fielding Acknowledged as Principal Westminster Magistrate 9. The Establishment of the First Detective Force in England 10. His Suggestions as to Legislative Reforms 11. Proposals for Removing the Causes of Crime 12. Defects in the Criminal Law and Suggested Reforms 13. Fielding and Prison Reform 14. His Views on Punishment 15. The Case of Elizabeth Canning 16. Fielding's Contribution to Legislation and to the Establishment of a Stipendiary Magistracy